1200.0.55.004 - Country of Birth Standard, 2012, Version 1.0  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 26/09/2012  First Issue
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Appendix A - Explanatory Script


This script is a guide for the question modules for the variables Country of Birth of Person, Country of Birth of Father and Country of Birth of Mother.

There are two standard question modules for Country of Birth, which have the same structure for each of the three Country of Birth variables. These include a question module for Detailed Data and a question module for Minimum Data:


Question module for Detailed Data:

There are two alternatives for the question module for Detailed Data:
    1. Alternative one: a set of tick box selected responses (pick list) and an 'Other - please specify' response category.

    For interview based questionnaires, the interviewer marks the box for the country of birth the respondent identifies for the person or the person's parents. If the respondent identifies a country not in the tick box list, the interviewer can write the country name in the 'Other - please specify' category.

    For self enumerated questionnaires, the respondent can choose the country of birth for the person or the person's parents from the tick box, if the country is specified. The 'Other - please specify' response category provides a space for the respondent to write the name of a country if it is not specified in the tick box.

    2. Alternative two: a tick box for Australia and an 'Other - please specify'

    For interview based questionnaires, the interviewer marks the box for Australia, if the respondent identifies this as the country of birth of the person or the person's parents. If the respondent identifies a country other than Australia, the interviewer can write the country name in the 'Other - please specify' category.

    For self enumerated questionnaires, the respondent marks the tick box for Australia, if the person or their parents were born in Australia. If born outside Australia, the respondent chooses the 'Other - please specify category', which provides a space for the respondent to write in the name of the country not specified in the tick box.
  • If there is a need for detailed information but space constraints are a consideration, then the tick boxes except the tick box for Australia, are not required. This will incur additional coding costs as each overseas born response will need to be matched with an entry in the SACC coding index.
  • In response to the country of birth of father and mother question module, if adopted or has step or foster parents, the person provides the country of birth of their birth parents, if known. If a birth parent's country of birth is not known, the person leaves the response to the question blank.

Question module for Minimum Data:

There is one alternative for question module for Minimum Data. In this question module there are only two tick box options; 'Australia' and 'Other country'.
    For interview based questionnaires, the interviewer marks the box for Australia if the respondent identifies this as the country of birth of the person or the person's parents. If the respondent identifies a country other than Australia, the interviewer marks the box for 'Other country'.
    For self enumerated questionnaires, the respondent marks the tick box for 'Australia', if the person or the person's parents were born in Australia or marks the box for 'Other country' if not born in Australia.